From Tokyo, Japan and Changsha, China – this is Down to Business English. With your hosts Skip Montreux and Dez Morgan.
Skip, what do you think would be the top three most recognizable American cultural icons?
The top three US cultural icons. Hm. Well, off the top of my head I would say The Statue of Liberty in New York City, The Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, and I … I don’t know apple pie.
Those are certainly good, but I might throw in Mt. Rushmore and baseball in there too.
Sure, those are very American icons.
What about Japan?
Oh, that’s easy. Mt. Fuji, sumo wrestling, and sushi.
Of course. The UK’s cultural icons would be double decker buses, fish and chips, and of course rainy weather.
Would that include London fog?
Yeah, I would think so.
What would you say Canada’s cultural icons would be?
When I think of Canada, immediately I think of ice hockey, maple syrup, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, riding horses in their ceremonial red jackets.
Ice hockey?! I have never heard of it.
What?!! What kind of Canadian are you?
Dez, there is no such thing as ‘ice’ hockey. There is only hockey, which happens to be played on ice. But it is not called ice hockey — just hockey.
Oh, pardon me.
So why are you so interested in cultural icons? Is our report today about famous business icons?
Not exactly. Today I’d like to report on a quintessential Chinese icon.
The Great Wall of China?
That is definitely a Chinese icon, but no. Today I’d like to report on the greatest Chinese icon of all — the giant panda.
The Giant Panda?! Yes, that is a Chinese icon, but what do pandas have to do with business?
Well nothing directly. But with China being the second largest economy in the world, and with all the political tensions between the Chinese government and many of their neighbors, the US, and Europe, diplomacy has never been more important.
True.
And China employs Pandas in their diplomatic efforts to help reduce tensions and keep things running smoothly.
Which of course is good for business.
Exactly. So, that is the business angle.
Hm, okay. I am intrigued.
Great. So let’s do it. Let’s get D2B … Down to Business with Panda Diplomacy. What exactly is it? How does it work? And what is the state of this diplomatic effort today?
Full disclosure, Dez. I am not a fan of pandas.
You’re not?
No, never have been. And I don’t understand why people go so goo-goo over them.
Well you are certainly in the minority there I would say.
Clearly.
Well whether you like them or not, the fact is pandas are always a consistent crowd favorite at zoos.
Oh, I am very well aware of that. I’ve visited Ueno Zoo in Tokyo several times over the years, and each time I was there the lines to see the pandas would be the longest.
Mm. That sounds about right. Let me start with some background about how zoos procure their animals.
By all means. How are zoo animals procured?
Normally, zoos will purchase animals from other zoos. But sometimes, instead of buying an animal, they make a trade.
And how does that work?
Let’s say a zoo in Germany has been really successful breeding, say, camels, but not so successful breeding penguins. But a zoo in Australia has the opposite imbalance.
They have a lot of penguins but no camels.
Exactly. If that were the case, the Australian zoo might trade their penguins for camels from the German zoo.
Hm. Okay, I see that. So, what do penguins and camels have to do with pandas?
Well, unlike penguins and camels or indeed any other typical animal, zoos can not make a trade for pandas. In fact pandas can’t be purchased either.
Why is that?
Because pandas are only indigenous to China, they don’t live in the wild in any other country. So each and every one of them is owned by the Chinese government.
All pandas are the property of the People’s Republic of China.
That’s right. And it is their policy not to sell them.
So how do zoos around the world get their hands on pandas?
They lease them from the Chinese Government and the pandas remain the property of China.
And the Chinese government can take the pandas back if they want to?
If they really want to, yes.
So what does it cost a zoo to lease a giant panda?
Typically the cost of leasing a pair of pandas is $1 million a year, and the typical lease is for 10 years.
So it is a $10 million commitment on the zoo's part.
Yes, but $10 million is just the starting point. When you factor in the cost of food, care, accommodation, and vet bills, the figure roughly doubles.
$20 million. Wow, Pandas are not cheap.
Edinburgh Zoo for example was paying $125,000 a year just to import bamboo.
Bamboo?!
Bamboo makes up 99% of a panda’s diet. If you’re going to keep a panda, you need a lot of bamboo.
I guess so. So, what happens if a pair of adult pandas are on lease and they have a cub?
Great question. If the pandas have a cub, the cub is also the property of the Chinese Government. And the day the cub is born the zoo is required to pay a cub tax of at least $200,000 and the cub is returned to China once it’s old enough — typically at the age of three.
So, why do zoos even try to breed them? I mean, if they have to pay more money just to keep a cub, why incur that expense?
Oh, come on. Nothing attracts visitors to a zoo than a brand new panda cub, because they’re rare and oh so cute.
Well cuteness is in the eye of the beholder I guess. Why don’t zoos just lease a cub from China instead of going to all the trouble of breeding the adults. I mean, my understanding is that it is very difficult to breed pandas in captivity.
It is, but the reason zoos do it is because it's the only way for them to procure a cub. The Chinese Government only sends adult pandas from China on their lease program.
Okay, but as soon as one is born, they have no problem charging for it. They are really in the driver’s seat when it comes to pandas.
More than you know. If the Chinese Government is not happy with a particular country, they will take back any pandas that are being leased by zoos in that country.
Even though the zoo didn’t break the terms of the lease in any way.
That’s right. The UK is a good example. London zoo hasn’t had any pandas since 1994 and Edinburgh zoo had to return its pandas at the end of 2023. So the UK is now pandaless.
I see where diplomacy comes in now. The government in London has been out of favor with China for quite some time and now this has spread nationally to include pandas in Scotland.
That does seem to be the case. China certainly uses pandas as soft power as diplomatic envoys or ambassadors.
That makes sense. So when did panda diplomacy start?
It’s been going on for centuries of course. As early as the 7th century, China gifted pandas to foreign countries it wanted to establish ties with. In modern times the most notable instance was when Chairman Mao gifted two pandas to the US after a state visit by President Nixon in 1972.
And that just wasn’t any state visit. It was a historic visit, the first time a sitting US president visited China and it signaled a shift in relations between the two countries.
It certainly did. Many see that as the beginning of China’s economic climb.
But those pandas were a gift. When did China start to actually lease pandas?
The policy shift from gifting pandas to leasing them happened in 1984. At that time the panda population was shrinking and China wanted to use the money it earned from leasing pandas and put it into conservation programs aimed at protecting the population of the giant pandas.
And how has that worked out for them?
China established The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in 1987. Initially it started with just six giant pandas rescued from the wild. Since then they have gone on to become the preeminent panda breeding and research center in the world.
Well seeing as how pandas only exist in nature in China, they don’t have any competition in that area.
Ah, true.
So, how many pandas does the Research base have today?
Today they take care of a population of 244 giant pandas and 166 red pandas.
Well then, it seems like it’s been quite the success.
It is. Sitting on 3 square km of beautiful mountain slopes, only 10 km away from Chengdu City, they say the Panda Research Base is one of China’s best kept secrets.
Okay back to the diplomacy angle, where does everything stand today?
Things have been getting interesting of late. At the end of 2023 it was very much looking like China was winding down their panda diplomacy program — especially in the US.
And why was that? Did they make some kind of announcement about it?
No, there wasn’t any official announcement. But between 2019 and the end of 2023 three US zoos lost their pandas.
What do you mean lost their pandas?
Their lease agreements had come to an end, so the pandas were sent back to China.
So it wasn’t the case where China was punishing the zoo, or the US government for something specific. It was just the end of the leasing contracts.
That’s right. But it did come as a surprise that the leases were not extended. And on top of that, there was no word from the Chinese government as to whether new panda leases were going to be offered.
Hmm. Well, China - US relations have been strained for some time so none of this comes as much of a surprise.
Well, this is where things get really interesting. In a visit to California late last year, President Xi Jinping hinted at a dinner with American business executives that pandas would indeed return to US zoos.
Hinted? He didn’t make any kind of official announcement?
Nothing official, but he did tell the audience that during his visit to California he had personally learned that many people, especially children, were reluctant to say goodbye to the pandas and that Californians very much looked forward to welcoming the pandas back.
Hm … yes, that is a very much a big hint. And a good example of how to wield soft power.
Yes. And not long afterwards it was announced that new lease agreements had been reached to send pandas to the San Diego Zoo and the National Zoo in Washington D.C.
So after several years of not issuing new leases, China did an about face and is now sending panda ambassadors back to the US in an attempt to thaw bilateral relations between the two nations.
That does seem to be the case.
And what about other countries? Is China deploying panda ambassadors anywhere else?
Australia has been promised two new pandas as the two they currently have in Adelaide Zoo have been there since 2009 and haven’t had any cubs in that time.
Do you think that has anything to do with the ongoing territorial dispute in the South China Sea between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors?
I am sure that dispute is making Australia a bit nervous so yes, this probably helps them feel a bit better. Madrid also received two new pandas on April 29th so Panda Diplomacy has had a busy year.
Madrid?! Does China have any disputes with Spain they are trying to smooth over?
Ah, no. I think this move is more in recognition of Spain’s success breeding pandas. Bing Xing and Hua Zui Ba returned from Spain to China in February with three beautiful cubs, all Spanish born.
I guess the Spanish are doing something right.
Some flamenco music, a nice glass of Spanish red. Who doesn’t find that romantic?
Certainly not me. And with that, I think it is time for us to get D2V … Down to Vocabulary. I will get D2V started today with the noun cub. Literally a cub is a baby bear, lion, or tiger.
Cubs stay with their mother until they’re capable of taking care of themselves.
That’s right. As Dez was reporting on the terms and conditions for a zoo to lease a panda, I asked him what would happen if a pair of adult pandas had a cub.
In other words, Skip was asking what happened when the adult pandas had a baby while under lease to a foreign zoo.
Outside of the world of animals though, the term ‘cub’ can be used idiomatically, as an adjective, to describe a young person who has little or no experience in a position.
Someone learning a job as an apprentice can be referred to as a cub.
As in a cub reporter in a news organization.
Yeah, just like a cub reporter. A cub reporter basically follows more senior reporters around and does what they’re told.
You also hear of cub accountants, the newest or least experienced accountant in the financial department. At first they would only do simple bookkeeping tasks but gradually, over time, as they learn more from the senior accountants, they are given more responsibility.
Our next expression is the term ‘soft power’ which refers to the power a country exerts through their cultural or economic influence.
In contrast to hard power which is exerted through military power.
Precisely. In my report, I referred to panda diplomacy as soft power because China uses pandas to promote friendship and better relations with other countries.
Hollywood is often described as a key example of US soft power. Through the movies it makes, US cultural beliefs and values are exported to countries around the world.
Good example.
Our final item for today is the expression, to do an about face. When a country, or company, or person does an about face, they completely change their current policy or the way of doing things.
This expression is an old British military command. It’s the command the sergeant shouted in order to get soldiers to turn 180 degrees in the opposite direction. He would have shouted, “About face”.
Hm. That makes complete sense. In today’s report, I commented that China had done an about face and is now once again leasing pandas to the US. In other words, they have completely changed their behavior.
After several years of not renewing or issuing new lease agreements, and taking back many pandas from several zoos, they’ve started to lease them out again.
When ‘about face’ is used in a business or professional setting there is usually a connotation that the new policy or behavior is better than what was being done previously.
Can you give us an example of that?
Imagine a company that has been struggling to provide good customer service for years. When a customer calls the help-line for assistance, there are long wait times followed by unhelpful advice from staff.
That sounds like a nightmare for customers.
No doubt. But then, the company does an about face. They completely overhaul their customer service department. They implement a new AI-powered chatbot, hire more representatives, and invest in more training for all of the staff.
They've turned their policy around 180 degrees, just like the military command suggests.
In this case, the about face is seen as a positive change. Customers are happier, problems are resolved faster, and the company's reputation improves significantly.
So when we say a company or person has done an about face, it implies they've recognized a problem and taken 180º action to correct it.
Exactly.
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Thank you Dez for that report on the state of China’s Panda Leasing program and panda diplomacy in general.
You are more than welcome Skip. It's an interesting topic and certainly has an indirect impact on global commerce.
There is no doubt about that.
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Bye bye.
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